Tag Archives: New York

Rare Original Signed Autographed Portrait Photograph Violinist David Rubinoff. A scarce unpublished original photograph of David Rubinoff (Dave Rubinoff)

Includes original mailing envelope with the return address:Brooklyn Paramount TheatreBrooklyn, New York

8″ x 10″ Photograph is by Roberts Boston

Photograph is Signed by David Rubinoff with gift inscription to lower left corner

In this photo Rubinoff is holding one of the most precious instruments in the world. A Stradivarius violin, which is insured for $100,000.
Satisfying a life-long ambition, Rubinoff aquired the “Strad” after searching for several years. He had tested many old and valuable violins, placed at his disposal by music dealers and collectors. but none were just right. The Rubinoff-Stradivarius, as it is known, sent him into raptures.
Made in 1731 by Antonio Stradivari in Cremona, Italy, the instrument in time passed into the hands of the Romanoffs, the reigning family of Russia until the revolution. It disappeared during that time of stress but turned up later in Paris in the possession of a former Russian prince who had taken the valuable instrument with him when he fled the country.
The violin bears the elaboratly engraved and bejeweled coat of arms of the Romanoff family as well as the identification mark of Stradivari and the date. The instroument is of a deep brownish-red lustre, perfecty formed and developed in all its intricate detail in a manner representative of the best work of the master.

RUBINOFF AND HIS VIOLIN
is a phrase frought with magic in the musical affections of a whole nation, a phrase that radiates sheer tonal enchantment. The silken strains that emanate from Rubinoff’s two-century old Stradivarius, over which he glides with caressing nuances and his unique symphonic interpretations of popular music bring a welcome warmth and vigor to the concert platform. (The People’s Choice) is how the Chicago Herald & Examiner described this electrifying artist.

Rubinoff, the son of poor parents, was born in Russia on September 3, 1897. He had only his natural inclinations and his mother’s devotion to set him on the road to fame. He was five when his mother presented him with a special small-sized violin. Such was his aptitude that within two years he was reguarded as a prodigy.

In Poland, the immortal Victor Herbert saw and heard young Rubinoff, who by then had graduated with highest honor from the Royal Conservatory of Music at Warsaw and was so impressed by the boy violinist took him to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and settled him in his home as his protegee. Through Herbert, Rubinoff met John Phillip Sousa and Will Rogers, who inspired him to devote his talent to the youth of our country. It was Rogers who encouraged him to lecture as well as play “If you get in trouble with that accent of yours” said the cowboy humorist, “Just play that fiddle. It hasn’t got an accent.”

Before long both the Capitol and Paramount Theaters in New York emblazened Rubinoff’s name on their marquees. Rudy Vallee, one of the shrewdest talent scouts of all time realized that radio was the medium that would bring Rubinoff’s talent the audience that deserved. Soon milliions of people were delighting to Rubinoff and his violin on such famed broadcasts as the Chase and Sanborn Hour, the Rexall, the Pebeco, and the Chevrolet programs. It might be noted incidentally that among those who responded to Rubinoff’s baton on these shows were such latterday giants of popular music as Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, and the late Glenn Miller.

The Chicago Herald & Examiner did not dub Rubinoff The people’s Choice without good reason. Having heard him at an open-air concert in Grand Park that drew the largest audience in the annals of American concerts the Herald & Examiner concluded its front page acclaim by observing (He is a dynamic personality that sets audiences on fire!). George Frazier, Life Magazine’s brilliant entertainment editor echoed this view when he wrote Rubinoff is undoubtedly one of the handful of authentically great showmen now on earth.

Rubinoff also appeared in several films including:

Morning, Noon and Night (1933) – This Betty Boop cartoon, produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures, includes a segment showing Rubinoff playing the violin

Parade of the Wooden Soldiers (1933) – Rubinoff appears as himself in this Betty Boop cartoon

Thanks a Million (1935) – Rubinoff appears as himself in this Hollywood film

You Can’t Have Everything (1937) – Rubinoff appears as himself in this Hollywood film

Original 1807 Edition; The Picture Alphabet for Little Children contains alphabets with woodcuts illustrating objects; 16 pages total including covers, with 2 letters to a page; Size: 3″ x 2 inches; This work has the distinction of being one of the first publications issued by Samuel Wood, who would go on to a distinguished career in the American publishing trade; Very Scarce

If you are in New York stop by Ceres Gallery to see the paintings of a friend-of-the-shop and Bennington College graduate, Aryn Chapman:

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

My paintings are a narrative of longing and desire through decay; each layer appearing to peel, slide, or break away through time and by weather, revealing what came before and a secret about the place or object exposed. For the past five years I have been exploring the idea of “secrets” in this fashion, mostly in the realm of the Feminine. The female figures in my work represent undeclared desires, dreams, memories, and fantasies; through them, I explore the longing universal to the peoples historically under the jurisdiction of men, subject to childbearing, cooking and cleaning, financial inequality, and being sex objects. To achieve this, I construct my work with a multitude of materials; oil paint, lace, and fabrics handmade traditionally by women for women (like wedding veils, doilies, quilts), photographs, and all manner of found objects. They are layered, then pealed, sanded, or scraped to reveal each anterior level, and often an outward-gazing figure beneath. – Aryn Chapman